Educate Me in....

[seawasp]

... "Global Warming".

I've more than once seen, and gotten peripherally involved in, discussions on this subject, but the last time I looked at it in any depth was (now that I think back) more than 10 years ago.

People on BOTH sides have been so strident that I find it very hard to even sort out the sane from the kook, and I'd really like to have a decent overview of the subject... on both sides.

I would prefer this *NOT* become a debate in my journal. What I want are references that allow me to examine the major sides of the debate -- best case, worst case, strength of evidence, etc.

Last I looked, for instance, I saw no clear indication that there was a really good plot of temperatures for, say, the past 100,000 years which would therefore permit one to see if the current temperature trends really fell out of those bounds. After all, 100-200 years is a miniscule blip on the charts.

So I'm looking to update my knowledge -- preferably with few flames.

Comments

[snippy]

I don't pay much attention to the subject, but if I were to change that, I'd also examine temperature trends on other planets in this solar system.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Bear in mind that if your next step is to claim that because others planets are warming, any warming on Earth must be due to the sun, the likely response is likely to point out that not all of the other worlds are warming, that in at least some of the cases where a planet is warming, we know why and it's not due to the sun getting a bit brighter, and that we measure how bright the sun is so if it was getting brighter, we'd know.

[snippy]

Exactly: you'd want to distinguish local effects accurately, which you can't do if you only look at what's happening on any one planet.

[snippy]

Also, I'd keep in mind that what I assume someone's argument to be, may not actually be their argument. And just because they might want to look at some data that obvious opponents or proponents of a position use doesn't mean they're making the same argument.